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Discontinuity surfaces are well known to influence the mechanical behaviour of rocks under compression. Non-destructive techniques, such as ultrasonic pulse velocity and sclerometers, are increasingly used to estimate uniaxial compressive strength of rocks. In this study, several core samples derived from the doubling works of the railway network near Genga (Marche Region, Central Italy) were analysed in order to assess the influence of the structural geological context (proximity to folds, faults etc.) and tectonic deformation on rock strength. Tests were conducted in rock specimens through: i) conventional uniaxial compressive experiment, ii) non-destructive rebound-based methods such as Schmidt Hammer and Equotip and iii) ultrasound. In this way, it was possible to make a critical analysis of the use of these techniques in the estimation of the uniaxial compressive strength (considering also information about discontinuity type, orientation and nature of the filling). Finally, a petrographic analysis using optical microscope has been undertaken as a support to the observations derived from the analysis at the sample scale. The results indicate that there are two main factors influencing the strength at the scale of the specimen. The first and most decisive factor is the presence of natural pre-existing fractures. The second is the tectonic deformation ratio: the greater the deformation is, the little the strength. Furthermore, through the combined use of uniaxial compressive experiment, non-destructive rebound-based methods and ultrasounds it was possible to highlights the advantages and limitations of each technique and define/propose new guidelines for their use.

The Plio-Pleistocene Calvello-Anzi Basin (CAB) represents a synorogenic shallow marine to alluvial succession deposited during the late phase of the Apennine Orogenic event. While the stratigraphy and sedimentary cycles are well known, the precise role and timing of the tectonic phases affecting this area are unclear. In this paper we report the major findings from a study aimed at unraveling the signatures of the Plio-Quaternary tectonic events affecting the CAB and this portion of the Southern Apennines by using a field integrated approach characterized by facies analysis, structural surveying, and basin architecture. The CAB is located in the axial portion of the Southern Apennine chain and has a roughly E-W orientation which is at a high angle with respect the main NW-SE striking regional tectonic structures controlling the foreland-directed migration of the compression. In the study area, an approximately 1,200-meter-thick package of Zanclean (early-middle Pliocene) to Santernian (middle Pleistocene) shelf, shallow marine, and alluvial deposits accumulated during the late stages of the Apennine orogenic evolution. Within the CAB deposits we recognize two main depositional motifs which roughly correspond to previously established regional cycles that are genetically linked to two corresponding tectonic phases of the Southern Apennine chain. Our results reveal how these two main tectonic phases played a primary role in controlling the depositional architecture, facies, depocenter distribution, and the basin shape throughout the CAB's lifespan. In the proposed model, during the first depositional stage (Zanclean), the CAB formed as a wedge-top basin, controlled by the subsurface propagation of NW-SE-trending thrusts related to the main NE-SW directed shortening of the Apennines. This stage is recorded in the basal units of the CAB infill by progressive unconformities, the development of syn-tectonic shallow marine sedimentary wedges along a high gradient tectonically controlled depositional surface, and a marked SE migration of the main depocenter. During the second depositional stage (upper Piacenzian to Santernian), the CAB was controlled by a series of roughly E-W-trending normal faults which crosscut the preexisting compressional structural fabric. Syndepositional activity along these faults played a direct role in creating an E-W oriented tectonic depression and controlling the accommodation space for the upper portion of the CAB infill. This second stage is marked by two points of evidence. The first point is revealed by a southwestward migration of the CAB depocenter driven by ~90-degree rotation from a roughly NW-SE elongated pattern to roughly elongated W-E transverse to the Pliocene regional structural fabric. This depocenter drift also coincides with an abrupt change in depositional regime from shallow marine to continental sedimentation. The second and most important point of evidence is the presence of several basin-bounding extensional fault zones which cut the lower Pliocene basin-fill units. We relate these features to the middle upper Pleistocene transition to along-strike extension, widely reported in the Southern Apennines, which is related to the overall extensional regime that is acting on the chain also at present. Data from this study provide additional insight into the evolution of the Southern Apennine chain, the formation of the Plio-Pleistocene CAB, and the debated role of Quaternary tectonics on the basin's development during the post-collision orogenic phases. Given the proximity of the study area with several oil fields and considering that hydrocarbon traps in Southern Apennines are Plio-Quaternary in age, the constraints provided on the timing and the style of the regional deformation may improve the definitions of hydrocarbon traps in the buried Apulian platform.

Bedforms and resulting sedimentary structures of interpreted upper-flow-regime origin are fairly common in various ancient and modern depositional settings, yet outcrop examples of shallow-water strata dominated by sedimentary structures arising from such flow conditions are rarely documented. This outcrop-based study presents the first detailed analysis of mid-Pleistocene beachface-shoreface strata containing sedimentary structures interpreted to have been formed by storm-generated backwash flows during the transition in flow regime from supercritical to subcritical. Here we propose that moving down the steep beachface, backwash flows rapidly accelerated and became thinner, experienced abrupt deceleration and flow thickening passing through an erosional hydraulic jump in the trough at the toe of the beachface, and then waned to thicker and subcritical conditions just downflow of the hydraulic jump. In this frame, landward-dipping backset laminae deposited on the downflow side of the trough evolved into thinner, upper-stage plane-parallel laminae further downstream. The transition from the proximal to the distal upper shoreface records a significant increase of preserved wave ripples and burrowed intervals, in concert with a progressive decrease in thickness and grain-size of individual sets of plane-parallel laminae and increase of gravel-filled gutter casts.

In the last decade central Italy was struck by devastating seismic sequences resulting in hundreds of casualties (i.e., 2009-L′Aquila moment magnitude [Mw] = 6.3, and 2016-Amatrice-Visso-Norcia Mw max = 6.5). These seismic events were caused by two NW-SE−striking, SW-dipping, seismogenic normal faults that were modeled based on the available focal mechanisms and the seismic moment computed during the relative mainshocks. The seismogenic faults responsible for the 2009-L′Aquila Mw = 6.3 (Paganica Fault—PF) and 2016-Amatrice-Visso-Norcia Mw max = 6.5 (Monte Vettore Fault—MVF) are right-stepping with a negative overlap (i.e., underlap) located at the surface in the Campotosto area. This latter was affected by seismic swarms with magnitude ranging from 5.0 to 5.5 during the 2009 seismic sequence and then in 2017 (i.e., a few months later than the mainshocks related with the 2016 seismic sequence). In this paper, the seismogenic faults related to the main seismic events that occurred in the Campotosto Seismic Zone (CSZ) were modeled and interpreted as a linkage fault zone between the PF and MVF interacting seismogenic faults. Based on the underlap dimension, the seismogenic potential of the CSZ is in the order of Mw = 6.0, even in the case that all the faults belonging to the zone were activated simultaneously. This has important implications for seismic hazard assessment in an area dominated by the occurrence of a major NW-SE−striking extensional structure, i.e., the Monte Gorzano Fault (MGF). Mainly due to its geomorphologic expression, this fault has been considered as an active and silent structure (therefore representing a seismic gap) able to generate an earthquake of Mw max = 6.5−7.0. However, the geological evidence provided with this study suggests that the MGF is of early (i.e., pre- to syn-thrusting) origin. Therefore, the evaluation of the seismic hazard in the Campotosto area should not be based on the geometrical characteristics of the outcropping MGF. This also generates substantial issues with earthquake geological studies carried out prior to the recent seismic events in central Italy. More in general, the 4-D high-resolution image of a crustal volume hosting an active linkage zone between two large seismogenic structures provides new insights into the behavior of interacting faults in the incipient stages of connection.

Large discordant breccia bodies (LDBBs) are important record keepers of the tectonic and gravitational evolution in platform-to-basinal settings, and have important implications for fluid-flow migration and compartmentalization of tight carbonate reservoirs. In the Gargano Promontory of southern Italy, LDBBs occur within a Cretaceous slope and basinal carbonate succession. We use field mapping and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) -based Structure from Motion (SfM) Photogrammetry to document otherwise inaccessible cliff-side exposures of seismic-to subseismic-scale vertical discordant breccias. LDBBs are up to 50 m in width, more than 80 m in height and display internal chaotic or aligned clast fabrics. The formation which generally contains the LDBBs is characterized by beds of cherty pelagic limestone intercalated with calcarenites, calciturbidites and horizons of mass transport deposits. The mass-transport deposits can be correlated across the chaotic breccia bodies, indicating only slight or no vertical displacement across the adjacent walls. The bases of the breccia bodies are always hidden below current sea level, while the rarely exposed tops are capped by bedded intervals of the host rock formation. Timing and origin of the studied breccias were determined using several lines of evidence, such as stratigraphic provenance of clasts in breccias, mutual relationships of structural and sedimentologic features, and previous studies which establish that the age of dolomitizing cements in the LDBBs formed at different times and by different processes (fault shearing and solution collapse). This work investigates the size, shape and geometry of these breccia bodies whilst also providing cm-scale detail of the textural features in otherwise inaccessible outcrops. We suggest that breccias formed as a result of solution exploiting a pre-existing fracture network characterized by large-scale vertical strike-slip or oblique-slip faults. Initial displacement along these faults created a wide fault damage zone, where fluid migration was later focused to create a zone highly susceptible to solution and subsequent periodic sidewall collapse.

The assessment of deformation types within the slope of a carbonate platform can be complicated by the possible interaction of rooted (tectonically-induced) and superficial (gravity-driven) structures. An ideal case study to document and distinguish tectonically- and gravity-driven structures is provided by the Cretaceous slope-to-basin carbonates exposed in the Gargano Promontory, southern Italy. These carbonates formed adjacent to the Apulian platform margin, which was oriented approximately NE–SW to NW–SE along the southern and northern edges of the promontory, respectively. Slump-related folds are characterised by axial planes typically oriented either sub-parallel or at small angles to the strike of the inferred paleoslope. In fact, the strike of folds is roughly NE–SW in the southern portion of the study area, whereas it is NW–SE in the northern part. Correspondingly, gravity-driven normal and reverse faults strike sub-parallel and at acute angles to the adjacent Apulian paleoslope. Cretaceous tectonic faults in the slope-to-basin carbonates form two principal sets striking NW–SE and WNW-ESE. The former set is made up of normal faults and the latter one includes mainly oblique-slip normal faults. Neither normal nor oblique-slip normal faults show any relationship with the geometry of the paleoslope. The results obtained from this study may help the interpretation of subsurface data in those geological contexts in which the interplay of gravitational and tectonic processes is responsible for deformation.

A detailed characterisation of submarine mass-transport deposits (MTDs), in terms of both emplacement processes and internal architecture of depositional products, is crucial to define the hydraulic properties of slope-to-basinal deposits.The Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous basinal Maiolica Formation exposed in the Gargano Promontory (southern Italy) represents an ideal natural laboratory to study the complex stratigraphic architecture of ancient MTDs. This formation consists of undisturbed intervals of flat-lying, thin-bedded, cherty micritic limestone inter-bedded with intervals of lithologically similar, but chaotic strata that are characterized by significant internal distortion. The stratigraphic thickness of these deformed units, which are interpreted to represent several types of mass movements (e.g., slumps and, to a lesser extent, slides and debris flows), varies from several decimetres to tens of metres. The internal deformation features comprise down-slope verging folds, together with both normal and reverse faults. In several places, the studied MTDs exhibit signs of reworking, as demonstrated by reactivation of the slump-related faults resulting in deformation of beds directly overlying the MTDs. Structural features within MTDs, provide information about the direction of the mass movement, and hence the orientation of the paleoslope. Measurements in the eastern and north-eastern part of Gargano Promontory suggest flow is directed towards the E and N respectively. The internal architecture of studied MTDs is discussed in the context of triggering mechanisms related to the characteristics of the Cretaceous paleoslope of the Apulian Platform.